Press Release

Geneva, 4 July 2012. At a seminar held at CERN1 today as a curtain raiser to the year’s major particle physics conference, ICHEP2012 in Melbourne, the ATLAS and CMS experiments presented their latest preliminary results in the search for the long sought Higgs particle. Both experiments observe a new particle in the mass region around 125-126 GeV. “We observe in our data clear signs of a new particle, at the level of 5 sigma, in the mass region around 126 GeV. The outstanding performance of the LHC and ATLAS and the huge efforts of many people have brought us to this exciting stage,” said ATLAS experiment spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti, “but a little more time is needed to prepare these results for publication.” "The results are preliminary but the 5 sigma signal at around 125 GeV we’re seeing is dramatic. The results presented today are labelled preliminary. The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe.

Elusive Higgs Particle Discovered! When scientists convinced European politicians to invest $10 billion in the 17 mile circumference Large Hadron Collider, they said that discovering the Higg’s Particle was one of their main goals. This elusive particle was predicted by Scottish physicist Peter Higgs, but never proved, and has become an important part of many theories in physics; its existence, if proved, would solidify a lot of theoretical work. So sought is it, that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman called it a “God Particle” — much to the chagrin and continual annoyance to fellow scientists, after the public picked up that name — and others have likewise used religious terms, calling it “the holy grail” of particle physics. The discovery of the particle confirms the Standard Physics Model, and explains how particles have mass. Physics uses a careful system that refuses to consider a thing discovered unless it meets a certain degree of probability. Did you like this? Elusive Higgs Particle Discovered!

Top 5 Implications of Finding the Higgs Boson | 'God Particle' | What Would the Discovery of the Higgs Boson Particle Mean? | Search for Higgs at the Large Hadron Collider #LHC# Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer | December 13, 2011 08:04am ET Credit: MichaelTaylor | Shutterstock Scientists announced today (Dec. 13) that they're closing in on the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that's been predicted but never detected. If physicists can definitively detect the Higgs boson and determine its mass, the discovery would have wide-reaching implications. Physicists Ecstatic Over Possible Higgs Particle Discovery | God Particle & Particle Physics Physicists are thrilled at today's (July 4) announcement of the discovery of a new elementary particle that is likely the Higgs boson, an elusive particle thought to give all other matter its mass. "To me it's really an incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime," Peter Higgs, the leader of the group that first theorized the particle in 1964 and after whom the particle is named, said during a press conference Wednesday (July 4). Evidence for the new particle was reported today by scientists from the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Physicists involved in two experiments called CMS and ATLAS taking place at the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), reported evidence of the particle at a seminar and press briefing today. "As a layman I would say 'We have it,' but as a scientist I would have to say 'What do we have?' Even so, elation abounded with loud applause after the seminar talks. "5 sigma from CMS!

Higgs! Scientists using the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva have announced the discovery of a new subatomic particle to very high confidence that is consistent with what we expect the Higgs particle to look like. Ye. GADS. This plot shows the discovery as seen in one of the LHC detectors. Hang tight, and I’ll explain it! OK, the quick version. This particle is very hard to detect, because it doesn’t live long. So, you have to collide particles over and over again, countless times, to build up that tiny signal from the Higgs decay. Back now? A proton has a mass of about 1 GeV, so this excess found is about 125 times that much. Today that all changed. That’s huge. Now technically, that’s all the physicists can say: the particle is definitely there. So there you have it. And it’s only the first step. Never forget this either: we humans did this. All we have to do is want it enough. Image credit: CERN Related Posts: - Mass effect: Maybe Higgs, maybe not - Europe: Day 3 — CERN!